| Author |
Message |
Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, September 09, 2015 - 8:36 pm 
Oh!! I had no idea you wouldn't know what a USB cable is, but you did say your knowledge is very elementary.
The cable/cord I am thinking of looks like this. Any thrift store would have one for 99 cents. All electronics stores would also have them, but for more money.
The technical description would be USB cable/connector/cord with USB-A, male, on both ends.
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Kmm
Member
10-07-2005
| Wednesday, September 09, 2015 - 10:06 pm
Just have to say that everyone here at TVCH is soooo very helpful...Juju even provides visual aids!!! You all are truly the best. 
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 6:24 am
Are you sure it's male on both ends?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If the wifi works in the store, there can't be anything wrong with the PC. It must have something to do with the way it's connecting to Comcast. If Juju's suggestion doesn't get it working, I think you should try to get Comcast to help you sort it out. Goodness knows we pay these people enough.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 10:32 am
Karuuna, my wifi is separate from the Comcast modem. I bought it last year.
The router worked fine on the old computer. When the man left, after he tried to connect to the internet on the new machine the router light was yellow instead of blue.
When I turned the old computer on the light was yellow on the computer. When I hit it and it went to blue the router went to blue.
Thank you everybody. Juju thank you for the pictures.
Jimmer, the Comcast kid that was here blamed the computer and Windows 7.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 10:48 am
I'm bit confused now. Does your new computer connect to the wifi at the store where you bought it? Is it connecting okay for you now at home?
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 10:59 am
Okay, progress! We've isolated the problem to the connection between the computer and your router.
I'm sure the Best Buy fellow can figure it out. Where are you posting from? We miss you!
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 11:46 am
I doubt very seriously it's the computer and Windows 7 or 10. Windows 7 and 10 really are pretty good operating systems and handle the handshake between computers and routers pretty well. More likely it's a simple thing like the computer needing to find and log into the router through the Network and Internet setup routine using the router's password.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 8:52 pm
Jimmer, fairly sure the receptacle on the modem/router was female, (it's up high and not easy to look at again) and of course my laptop receives a male plug.
Mack, that is a thought, but it if were a password problem, she would get to the password entry when trying to connect, and I don't think she is getting that far, but yes, my password that is ON the router, although it is not called a password is about 16 characters long.
Dogdoc, they may have given you one of these new combination modem/routers without telling you, which is exactly what they did with me, and they are lousy pieces of equipment, which sent me on a three months long odyssey ending up in me now being a very bitter Comcast customer, when before that I had no complaints, but that is another long story. In fact, my notes on it are now six pages long, LOL.
BUT the good news is, and this could even be a solution for you, as it turned out to be for me. First, If you have a USB cable as I have shown, try plugging one end into a USB port on your laptop and the other into the new modem and opening a browser and see if it takes you to a Comcast activation page. The more I think about it, the more I think you must be hard-wired to do the activation of the equipment.
If you get it activated, unplug the USB cable, then unplug your personally owned wireless router, , then look for a wireless signal that is strong and is called something like HOME-7645 (HOME plus four digit number). If you find that, it is going to be that they have given you a combination modem router without telling you they did. So try to connect wirelessly to HOME-4758. Then it is just a matter of figuring out which of the numbers on your new router is the password. It will NOT be the one called MAC address.
So, if you can follow that, and it works, do NOT get rid of your personally owned wireless router yet. Just store it for a while. It turns out the wireless part of Comcast's new equipment is not the best. And so, after replacing my "new and improved" equipment four times and getting enraged at the incompetence and outright lying of Comcast, my solution turned out to be to hard-wire connect their new combination modem/router to my old wireless router and use that wireless signal.
And of course that I was having all of these problems with Comcast's new and improved equipment at the start of Big Brother season and continuing DEEP into the season has only added to my rage.
Juju, the undead (joke from another thread)
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 7:40 am
The Geeksquad man said the same thing you guys did. The Comcast man hooked up my router to the Comcast modem with its own router.
I asked about the USB cable. He said the cost about $30.00 I will get one when I need one. I am saving the old router. Like you say Juju, I bet there is a cheaper on.e
It is nice to not have to go to the library to post Karuuna.
Thank you everybody!
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 8:31 am
Wait a minute...... The Comcast modem includes its own wireless router? The reason I ask is a couple of years ago AT&T converted me from DSL to U-verse. The old DSL modem was just that, a modem with a port for one hardwire device but no router and no wireless capability. To feed my hard wired desktops and wireless iPads, laptops, etc., I had my own router to provide wired and wireless connection to the Internet. The AT&T U-verse installer hooks up the new U-verse modem/router and plugs my personal router into it. We figured that would be easier as all my desktops, printers, and wireless devices were all hooked to or permitted to that router. We all thought that made sense and it should work but it didn't. We tried everything, we reset and reset, he called his tech support, we checked my router's support website through his laptop, etc., etc. After a good 45 minutes to an hour of frustration we took my router out of the scheme and started entering the passcode for the U-verse modem/router into my wireless iPads and laptops. Bingo! I had Internet! There were a couple of ports on the back of the U-verse modem/router so I could hardwire my desktops into it so all was good. Point is that sometimes having two routers in the same system is problematic. While it ought to work it often doesn't or is too complicated for even supposedly knowledgeable techs to make work.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 9:49 am
Yes, the router is built in and the password is your phone number.
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 9:55 am
So when you click on Settings and go to the Network & Internet icon and click on that do you see your Comcast router listed at the top under Wireless Network Connection?
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 10:07 am
It says Netgear 78
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 10:19 am
Is Netgear 78 your old router or the new Comcast? If it's the Comcast then click on it. The information should expand and have a check box labelled "Connect Automatically" and another box labelled "Connect". Click that box and followed the instructions if any to enter the passcode.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 11:19 am
I don't know if that is the old router or not.
I am always worried that I will do something wrong if I click on things.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 11:25 am
Sounds like the GeekSquad guy knows his stuff, I"m glad he was able to get you up and running again.
FWIW, not all Comcast modems have built in wireless. Mine does not.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 1:26 pm
I got a phone call from Comcast awhile ago saying that there is a new modem and it will be mailed to me.
You have to return the old one.
I opted to pay the $20.00 to have someone come and install it. It took the guy on the phone quite a while to do some upgrades and make the appointment.
Before he hung up he said he would wave the $20.00 since I had to wait on the phone so long.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 1:35 pm
yeah, and then they installed it incorrectly apparently. They should have told you that you don't need a wireless router any more since it's built into the new modem.
But don't get me started on Comcast, and modem woes. They sold us a wrong modem, and then the wrong plan, and it took months to straighten it all out.
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Sia
Member
03-10-2002
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 1:44 pm
This may be more of a consumer issue than a technical question, so it this isn't the right thread, Moderators, please move it:
I'm very tired of the scam calls I'm receiving on my landline and cell phone from people with heavy foreign accents telling me they are "Microsoft Certified Technical Engineers" and that my p.c. has been compromised/virused & that it's throwing errors. They are calling to help me. I have no doubt this is a ruse to get into my system to hack it for financial information. Some of the phone numbers I've looked up are reported as a scam; today's number simply came up as "from Texas" but I think it's the same outfit.
Anyone experiencing the same thing?
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 1:48 pm
Yes! Yes! Yes! I have gotten several of those calls. And yes, and I could barely understand the callers.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 2:15 pm
yes, Sia. I yelled (and I mean really *yelled*) at the last one and they have stopped for the time being.
Perhaps it's coincidence, but I'm choosing to believe it was that I scared the crap out of them. LOL.
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 2:26 pm
LOL, I only get IRS and jail scams. But then again I don't answer my landline until someone speaks to my answering machine. It picks up on the first ring, and my friends know I will pick up, if home, when they speak.
I have been getting a ton of hang-ups though. They may not want to leave a return phone call, LOL.
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Kookliebird
Member
08-04-2005
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 2:26 pm
I like to tell them that either 1) I'm not sure why they are calling me because I don't have a computer OR 2) I have an Apple, not Microsoft computer. Then, I hang up. It just depends on what I feel like when I get the phone call. 
I do not have a MAC, I have Microsoft, but I know it's a scam... so, I don't feel bad about lying at all. They started it!!
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 2:32 pm
If I have some free time, I just act really confused. Drives them crazy. 
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Friday, September 11, 2015 - 2:44 pm
Kooklie, I do have a Mac, but telling them that over and over didn't help.
This is a little dark, but for some scams I have told them I have a serious illness and please stop calling me. That works too. 
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